MAN CAVE / CD REVIEW: The Sam Roberts Band's Collider

Montreal's Sam Roberts Band (SRB) bombarded the Electric Factory Friday night to open for Grace Potter and The Nocturnals - playing a number of songs from their most recent disc Collider.

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MAN CAVE / CD REVIEW: The Sam Roberts Band's Collider

POSTED: Monday, September 26, 2011, 2:00 PM

Filed Under: Man Cave

Man Cave is a testosterone-laden Monday feature that highlights the weekend haps of a pop culture-loving Philly dude.

Montreal's Sam Roberts Band (SRB) bombarded the Electric Factory Friday night to open for Grace Potter and The Nocturnals. Playing a number of songs from their most recent disc Collider, SRB added saxaphonist Stuart D. Bogie, of Antibalas. The addition of sax avoids E-Street style, achieving just a smidgen of funk for what's otherwise the most straight-forward classic rock band of all the popular indie acts today. The first rockin' shuffle, "The Last Crusade," sets the tone for an album that attempts to shove humanity more aggressively down modernity's throat than any of their previous works.

"Longitude" is one of SRB's Canadian anthems, capturing both the general vibe of Canadian indie-rock as well as a lyrical aesthetic of life in the north. "Let the spirits lead us and the hunger feed us!" sings Roberts in a duet with Land of Talk's Elizabeth Powell.

"Streets of Heaven (Promises, Promises)" is a groovy big-picture reflection, reminding us "You're a drop in the ocean baby, don't drift away / You're just a body in motion baby, you're food for a day." "Heaven" offers the only bona fide sax solo on a record that probably has more sax hidden in the weave than standing out.

"I Feel You" is an emotional march with a zeal typical of Sam Roberts' hyperbolic sincerity. "All or nothing, love is war. Remember who you're fighting for!" The first single in Canada, "I Feel You" is definitely the "biggest" song on the album.

"I Feel You" is followed up by the album's climax, "The Band vs. The World." A different group would risk eye-rolls with its adolescent naivete (recalling their debut's impressively genuine mission statement, "Yes, I believe in Rock 'n' Roll, and I would die for Rock 'n' Roll!"). This anthem about the symbolic cleansing of a good summer rainstorm (a concept probably lost on most Philadelphians lately) is less adversarial and more unifying that its title suggests. "None of us are free till all of us are free!" sings Roberts on one of the most cathartic tracks on the album.

The Sam Roberts Band headlines North Star Bar on Fri., Dec. 2. For tickets, visit northstarbar.com.

(ryan.carey@citypaper.net)

(@slackerDIYtoday)

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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